This photo courtesy of Chantel Beam Photography
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As we recover from the recession, the effects of the lean revolution are starting to show in our daily lives.  We are migrating away from an inventory based system to a JIT based system. In the historic system, we established safety stock in planned warehouse locations so that it was possible to react to panic orders.  Unchanging output, produced in large batches, made it possible to establish a slightly higher blended price that covered the cost of safety stock.

During the last recession the ground rules changed.  Leftover parts in safety stock became obsolete and valueless overnight. The manufacturers who survived used technology advances to implement flexible JIT production processes.  Kanban was implemented to eliminate extra inventory that was consuming company capital. Even today, the growing pains of lean continue to propagate within the chain.

Now that lean manufacturing has reduced the manufacturing content to only 20% of the company activity, other rocks in the process are exposed.  It is not surprising that most companies are applying lean to more than just the manufacturing group.

One of the results of applying lean thinking to scheduling is that surplus goods don’t exist anymore.  It is disconcerting when the builders salvage store that I use can no longer obtain faucets or hot water tanks or windows or floor tiles.  An empty store front exists where my favorite surplus shoe warehouse resided.  We have consumed most of the stock that was unloaded during the recession. While I may not sure that I am ready to learn new purchasing behaviors, the requirement is already being thrust upon me.

JIT manufacturing puts tremendous pressure on the warehousing industry as many products cannot be built until the materials arrive from the warehouse.  Warehouses must now be nimble, agile and flexible.  The ancient workhorses that we bought for brute force and large carrying capacity now need to be replaced with more agile, less expensive and faster moving material handling equipment like tuggers otherwise it can appear that you are running roller derby in your warehouse every day!

On the bright side, lean manufacturing will make obtaining exactly what we want easier. There will be growing pains as we adjust our habits to include more advanced planning of what we would like to purchase to control costs. The lean systems that are being put in place will include expedited charges for shipping which are  becoming a feature of all quoted prices. Witness the regular inclusion of expedited shipping options on most web stores.  A few people will panic the first time that they end up needing to pay a serious premium for expedited manufacture and delivery.  Lean is not just something that happens at the workplace, it is changing how we live our lives.